Through numerous illustrations appearing in publications such as
The Saturday Evening Post,The Literary Digest, and
Ladies Home Journal, Norman Rockwell's timeless images of
everyday America entered the homes of millions of people. His
descriptive painting style and ability to encapsulate the
traditional and nearly universal values shared in the American
experience contributed to his tremendous popularity and rendered
him hugely successful. She Said it for a Lifetime (Man Receiving
Gift Watch) serves as a primary example of Rockwell's skillful
ability to present an enduring and heartwarming image that
continues to resonate with the public even decades after its
creation.

During the late 1910s, illustration jobs were becoming increasingly
competitive as magazines were incorporating more photographic
images into their layout and rising costs in book publishing were
limiting opportunities for illustrators in that field. It is
probably due only to his talent and drive that Rockwell was largely
unaffected by this trend. "At an age when most young men are
leaving college, Norman already ranked as one of America's leading
illustrators" (A.L. Guptill, Norman Rockwell: Illustrator,
New York, 1946, p. 72).

In 1916, one of Rockwell's illustrations appeared on the cover of
The Saturday Evening Post for the first time. This great
achievement was a windfall for the artist leading to commissions
from a variety of magazines, including Collier's, The
Literary Digest, Ladies Home Journal, and Life.

Recognizing the readership's nostalgia for young and old alike,
Rockwell produced She Said it for a Lifetime (Man Receiving Gift
Watch) as an advertisement for Elgin Watch Company that first
appeared in the June 1926 Ladies Home Journal, followed by
an appearance in The Saturday Evening Post Magazine on July
17, 1926, page 140. The present work is an endearing portrayal of a
mother bestowing an Elgin pocketwatch upon her son on his eminent
twenty-first birthday. As the advertisement eloquently states:

"His twenty-first birthday. The threshold of young
manhood."To mother, the occasion calls for something more than
short-lived recognition-the celebration of a day. It calls for a
commemoration of her affection that shall live with him throughout
his life."Her birthday gift must say, not merely 'I love you,' but, 'I
love you forever and aye!'"

It is of little wonder that Elgin Watch Company would have
commissioned Norman Rockwell for doing such a work. Elgin Watch
Co., which started to produce their first pocketwatch movements in
1867, was during the 1920s the most dominant of the American watch
brands, producing up to one million timekeepers in 1926 alone.
Norman Rockwell, whose finger rested firmly on the pulse of
American ideals of the period, perfectly captures the emotion of
giving and receiving of an Elgin Timepiece with a catch line in the
advertorial: "An Elgin that will keep the time for him faithfully
until he is ready to deed it to his own son". This advanced style
of advertising, and the gifting imagery portrayed in Rockwell's
painting, is still current and successful for the top luxury
timepiece brands today, most notably Patek Philippe's "you merely
hold onto it for the next generation" campaign.

With She Said it for a Lifetime (Man Receiving Gift Watch),
Elgin Watch Co. taps into the strong, and one might even say
progressive, purchasing power of women in 1926. This notion of
marketing directly to women is what one might expect to see in the
1950s or later. Yet in 1926, the concept speaks volumes about the
forward thinking minds of both Elgin, and of Rockwell himself.

She Said it for a Lifetime (Man Receiving Gift Watch) is
executed in Rockwell's signature descriptive style of finely drawn,
clear realism with a wealth of fascinating detail-the young man's
ring and well-cut suit, his mother's diaphanous shawl, and the
Elgin watch itself. In discussing his career, Rockwell commented,
"I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might
not have noticed. And perhaps, therefore, this is one function of
the illustrator. He can show what has become so familiar that it is
no longer noticed. The illustrator thus becomes a chronicler of his
time" (as quoted in Norman Rockwell: A Definitive Catalogue,
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1986, p. xii).

With She Said it for a Lifetime (Man Receiving Gift Watch),
Rockwell once again succeeds in capturing the nostalgia of a
simpler world that is as familiar today as it was nearly a century
ago when he painted this beguiling work.

The painting was inherited directly from the Estate of Robert E.
Dreher and is offered from the Collection of Bradley and Susan
Schuchat, his descendants. The proceeds are being generously
donated to fund college scholarships, one of which is a graduate
nursing scholarship at the University of South Florida. The
scholarship funds nurses furthering their education in the Masters,
Doctoral of Nursing and Ph.D. programs and was established in
memory of their daughter, Diane.

A copy of The Advertising World of Norman Rockwell and a
tearsheet from The Saturday Evening Post featuring this
advertisement accompanies this lot.

Condition Report*:
Framed Dimensions 24.5 X 31.75 Inches

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